Equinox 2/3/18 Sailing – Live Blog, Photo Blog, Cat Blog, Dog Blog, Vlog?

[evelyn inkpen]

The link to the video wasn’t live, but I think I’ve fixed it! Hope you don’t mind.

 

 

 

 

Thank you!! sometimes the cut & paste option is a bit tricky on an iPad (totally miss my mouse). Or it might be all the champagne... [emoji16]

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[evelyn inkpen]

Great reading. We go btb 3/10 - 3/24. Any info on conditions in Puerto Rico, or St Maarten would be of great help. Nothing can beat an eyewitness. My concern aside from damage, is the flu situation or any other type of health issues that you may have heard something about. It may help us decide in advance what we can possibly do on those days. So many differing reports make it difficult to understand what is true and false. Ty in advance and enjoy

 

 

 

Great question. They are both looking good! We didn't get off in Puerto Rico this time, but everyone said OSJ was lovely as ever. St.Maartin still had some hurricane damage. Major hotels were closed and some upturned boats. But mostly the Dutch side was coming along great with repairs. The shopping area at the pier was mostly finished and freshly painted.

 

Overall the beaches were fantastic, restaurants opened and full of friendly people at St. Maartin. Yes a major hurricane had come thru, but life on the island continues on and it's still a great place to visit [emoji41]

 

When in doubt, a celebrity tour is a good recommendation we've found.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[evelyn inkpen]

Day 4 St. Maartin!

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[TobyKnits]

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience on Equinox! It has been a very fun and enjoyable review so far, looking forward to more. Glad to see the smoke did not disrupt your visit to St. Martin.

[VacationLuv008]

I'm a year out for this ship, but GREAT blog. Can't wait to read the rest of it!

[Judie]

Loving your review and videos. Could you share with us with your day to day occupations are? You are both so creative! I’m thinking something in the field of acting or the arts. Keep having such a joyous life!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[cltnccruisers]

Day 4 St. Maartin!

 

 

 

Absolutely love your youtubes -especially the outfits. Just fantastic! DW would like to know how you pack the period pieces plus "normal" clothes. I'm thinking instead of my conventional suit you pack the 1890s and go with that.

 

BTW, I have plus-fours to golf in so I understand period.

[evelyn inkpen]

Loving your review and videos. Could you share with us with your day to day occupations are? You are both so creative! I’m thinking something in the field of acting or the arts. Keep having such a joyous life!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

 

 

Our jobs are pretty heavy on the technical side - but our hobbies are creative [emoji3] We love the balance in life.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Lineaway]

Great review, Thanks for posting.

 

Question: I have noticed in several videos along with yours, that the Helipad is open for sailaway. They didn't allow that on the Silhouette when we were on. How do you access that deck?

 

Also, we have a Port side balcony for this same itinerary in about 7 weeks. Which side did the ship dock at in each port? I know Miami they dock Starboard. At St. Kitts it looked like they backed in and docked Starboard also.

 

Thanks

[cruisestitch]

Helipad spillways are by invitation only. Sometimes International Guests are invited, sometimes Captain's Club Elite and above are invited. It's all up to the Captain on any given itinerary which dates the helipad might be used for a spillway party.

[Lineaway]

Considering I didn't see alot of people on the Helideck and that seems like a prime spot, it makes sense that its by invite only. This will be our 3rd Celebrity cruise so not even close to Elite.

[upwarduk]

Helipad spillways are by invitation only. Sometimes International Guests are invited, sometimes Captain's Club Elite and above are invited. It's all up to the Captain on any given itinerary which dates the helipad might be used for a spillway party.

 

 

 

We were invited to the sail-away from Stockholm on Eclipse 2015. There were instructions on the invite detailing how to access the helipad, but I can’t remember which deck now. We are Elite, but I suspected we got in invite via CD Sue Denning.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Judie]

Our jobs are pretty heavy on the technical side - but our hobbies are creative [emoji3] We love the balance in life.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

 

 

Perfect. It’s yin and yang. Carry on!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[garyl62]

Helipad spillways are by invitation only. Sometimes International Guests are invited, sometimes Captain's Club Elite and above are invited. It's all up to the Captain on any given itinerary which dates the helipad might be used for a spillway party.

 

We were invited to a helipad sail away on our second cruise on Celebrity. We were in a Sky Suite, so that probably had something to do with it, but I've read several comments about various people being invited who do not have Elite status. Many times they have been in a Concierge, Suite or Aqua level cabin.

[DENIE]

Great post! Love your humor! Thanks for sharing...:cool:

[David Kane]

Apologies for the gap in posting - I couldn't really do it justice without pictures and XZ has been nicely filling in the time with our first vlog set.

 

To quickly answer the questions I've seen:

 

1) Sail-aways on the Helipad seem to be wicked subjective and heavily influenced by the weather. From what I have seen on the Equinox, based upon reading previous reviews and our own experiences; Concierge Class will be invited to the Helipad on Embarkation, Suite Level may be invited on another day (ours was St. Kitts). This may additionally vary by the number of actual port days, which tend to be required for sail-aways! Access to the Helipad is located on Deck Six - at the appointed time just start walking forward on 6 and you'll see numerous staff to direct you. There is a single step up-and-on to the deck and then a set of stairs up to the Helipad itself (and, of course, the Helipad is does not have any seating) - there were additional staff on hand to assist in these locations - unless one was very unsteady on their feet our could not walk up about 15 stairs with a double railing it's a very safe and controlled space.

 

2) Celebrity Ships visiting San Juan arrive at the Dock by the Old City.

 

3) We pack 7 bags (4 Carry on - 3 checked - love those no-baggage-fee airlines) when we fly to Port. When we drive we bring a massive Steamer Trunk. The largest issue by far are they hats as they don't pack down at all. I've had some luck nesting a few and filling others up with freshly laundered socks to reclaim some potentially wasted space. Our formal wear took several years to acquire and match - it's a fun work in progress.

 

And now! Back to posting.

[evelyn inkpen]

Hello,

 

Next video is live!

 

Day 5 in St. Kitts:

 

Lazy Day on the ship!

Ship Olympics: Bars & Games

iLounge

Helipad Sailaway

 

Cheers

[evelyn inkpen]

We've always been impressed with Michael's Club & Luminae! They truly are a great part of cruising. :)

We don't travel too often, but save up to do it posh style when we do! Work hard & vacation well. Yay!

 

Reading this live review is a wonderful distraction. Loving the chance to sail with you. We board the equinox on Feb 17th in a suite, so very happy to hear michaels and luminae are living up to your expectations thus far

[evelyn inkpen]

LOL you totally win for Posh-ist reply :D :D Joie de Vivre yay.

So glad you are liking the videos - it's the first time we've tried vlogging and it's a hoot!

 

The front of the gym is very fun and continued to be a great place to get a front of the ship view (plus seeing other people wind blasted as we're sailing by)...

Cheers

 

In addition to being entertained by your wit and joie de vivre, I want to thank you for the insider tip about the best kept secret sail away location in the Equinox.

 

"...but there is a front-facing walk right outside the Gym on 14 that overlooks the Helipad! No one is out there (as no one really uses the gym at this time) and it is THE best place for sail away, hands down."

 

We look forward to cruising the ship in October, and your "Arrogance of the Seas" comment was hilarious.

[clanger]

Thank you both we are so enjoying your review /blog.

Constantly checking for further updates.

Happy holiday and enjoy 😔

[cltnccruisers]

3) We pack 7 bags (4 Carry on - 3 checked - love those no-baggage-fee airlines) when we fly to Port. When we drive we bring a massive Steamer Trunk. The largest issue by far are they hats as they don't pack down at all. I've had some luck nesting a few and filling others up with freshly laundered socks to reclaim some potentially wasted space. Our formal wear took several years to acquire and match - it's a fun work in progress.

 

Wonderful! You look like you have so much fun. I hope we run into you sometime. :D

[David Kane]

Day 2 - Crawling at Sea - 1 of 2 -

 

XZ and I awoke sometime around 7:30 but lazed around the room until 9am, watching the Cruise Director's morning presentation which I thoroughly enjoy even if the humor is a touch self-referential and contains giggling...oh, so much giggling.

 

We managed to make it to Luminae and only took 3 wrong turns, so our sense of ship-direction is vaguely improving. XZ committed a cardinal sin of ordering by asking for one 1 pancake when guests are clearly expected to continually order way, way more. I had a rather fluffy egg white wrap. Micheal's club was next, for a quick drink, and then it was time for the Cruise Critic Roll Call - aka the Connections Party!

 

Unfortunately, some ongoing website snafu has been plaguing the Roll Call sign-up for the past...year? Some guests can sign up, some cannot, it never records the correct numbers, and then someone *else* tries to sign up and it tell them we have only 8 people attending and people assume it's been cancelled. This time, due to the organization drive of member 'Vols Fan' we had about 150 people (!) signed up, at least we thought we had. Unfortunately, about 141 of them never got a notification of when it was (10am-ish, in the Gastropub - yes, I actually made it IN to the Gastropub).

 

So, here we go!

 

 

 

 

And, yes, when you let your wife snatch the marker from the Event Coordinator to fill out your nametag of COURSE she puts down 'Dick Fitz.' Classy lady, there:

 

 

 

 

After getting that little issue corrected and gathering some more people, we had a nice Roll Call of about 50 or so. The Spaceman showed up and talked briefly about the importance of Cruise Critic, acknowleding that he originally thought it was full of negitive comments but after seeing that it was "95% positive" he considers it 'required reading' for his staff - because, when at work, I, too, look forward to instant, anonymous feedback from 2,391 people. Love ya', Cruise Critic, but sometimes, man. Sometimes.

 

As the Roll Call broke up we attempted to round up the folks for the Cabin Crawl. Unfortunately a number of the people who were originally interested weren't present and a few other's hadn't had the room steward come around yet so we were left with our Sky Suite and, nicely enough, a Penthouse offered up by Yvonne and Mike. The S-class Penthouse is interesting. The M-Class is arguably the best room on any Celebrity ship (excepting, perhaps, the Reflection Suite as I've never been in that hallway, let along that room) while the S-Class is laid out along the midships and doesn't feature the massive wrap-around deck fo the smaller ship. However, with the rooms stacked side-by-side the space seems HUGE. I think you could throw a football around in there without too much difficulty.

 

Post Cabin Crawl we headed to the iLounge for some updated, but several people loudly bitching about the internet, the service, and the login process had me fleeing after a good ten minutes. We headed striaght out and down to the Destination Concierge to see what we could arrange for snorkeling in St. Martaan. There, we met the lovely duo of Arisledy and Margarata (likely spelled wrong) who got us on a Adventure Boat Snorkeling Experience for Tuesday which, if it was anything like the last one we did in Labadee, would be face-erasingly awesome.

 

Next up was lunch and our favorite Specialty Restaurant; Sushi on Five! We had an enjoyable repast of Snow Maiden Sake paired with Miso Soup (hand poured at the table - a must see!), Omakade Sashimi, Eel Nigiri and a Veggie Roll. While there, we inquired about the Sushi Making Demo they usually have and were told it was the next day at 10am! Now; about this - the hands-down best Free activity on the ship in regards to food is this demonstation. Not only do you get to see a Sushi Chef work up close and personal while he explains all the ingredients and the process but you get to sample each item and can snag special discounts - but more on that tomorrow.

 

Heading into the afternoon we walked around a bit; XZ stopped by the Sunset Bar:

 

 

 

Just below it, we found THE BEST seat on the Ship. There is a small table with two chair facing directly after, with the Sundet Bar behind you - I'll include this eventually on my 'Secrets of the Equinox' thread but, for now, here it is (apologies to the two people in the shot - these chairs were almost never empty):

 

 

And Finally, some High Tea and Cards in Michael's Club:

 

 

 

Next Up: Sunday Night can mean only one thing - praying to God the Eagles Fans don't riot, by which, I mean, the Superbowl in all its insatiate glory.

[cltnccruisers]

Hello,

 

Next video is live!

 

Day 5 in St. Kitts:

 

Lazy Day on the ship!

Ship Olympics: Bars & Games

iLounge

Helipad Sailaway

 

Cheers

 

DW absolutely loves your shimmery dress, Evelyn. Personally, I like Dave's natural pirate look - AARRGGHH!! You promote the idea of staying on board on occasion very well.

[cocker2]

Thank you both for a great blog/vlog. Following as on Equinox 4/23 - remembered to do that the American way! Usually on Eclipse so looking forward to a new experience as we enjoy our NOLA Jazz Fest cruise.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Kttuttle]

As many others have mention, I’ve truly enjoyed reading your posts and watching your vlogs. My husband and I will be on the Equinox in April celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary. I appreciate the time you have spent sharing your journey. It’s given us he opportunity to be even more excited about our upcoming trip. Enjoy the rest of your trip!